Intellectual Property Law

Joseph J. Farnan: Paperless Event Ticketing Claims Construed

By Karen E. Keller, Andrew A. Lundgren et al.

For those with clients in the entertainment industry, district judge Joseph J. Farnan Jr. recently issued a notable decision construing claims related to paperless event ticketing. In particular, the Court construed the following claims:

"Personalized Physical Material"
"Paperless Ticket"
"Authentication Data"
"Exchanging"
"Data Center"
"Asks"
"Bid"
"Ask Quantity," "Ask Price," "Bid Quantity," and "Bid Price"
"Comparing the Bid to the Asks"
"Completing a Transfer of the Paperless Tickets When the Bid Price Equals the Ask Price and the Ask Quantity is Equal to or Greater than the Bid Quantity"
"The System"
"Access to the Venue Upon Presentation of the Buyer Authentication Data to an Access Device"

The Court also construed seven means-plus-function terms:

"Means for Associating the Paperless Tickets with Authentication Data of the Ticket Seller"
"Means for Reassociating the Paperless Tickets with Authentication Data of the Ticket Buyer"
"Means for Receiving from Ticket Sellers Electronic Asks"
"Means for Receiving from a Ticket Buyer an Electronic Bid"
"Means for Granting Access to the Event Upon Presentation of the Buyer Authentication Data of the Paperless Ticket"
"Means for Comparing the Bid to the Asks"
"Means for Completing a Transfer of the Paperless Tickets When the Bid Price Equals the Ask Price and the Ask Quantity is Equal to or Greater Than the Bid Quantity"

Flash Seats LLC v. Paciolan Inc., C.A. No. 07-575-JJF (D. Del. Jan. 19, 2010).

Full post as published by Delaware IP Law Blog on January 21, 2010 (boomark / email).